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His English Lady

by

Abbey Faith

EXCERPT

Eldon returned home after a long morning at the market. Stepping out of his hired coach, he paid the driver and turned to see his sister hopping across the lawn, dark hair loose and blowing like black streamers through the wind. Echo was nearby, preparing to throw a ball at Nilette. Near the girls, he noticed a tuft of crinkling grass and assumed that Thacker was there, too.

As soon as she noticed another person’s presence, Echo lowered her arm. “It’s all right, girls.” He assured them, even though Nilette certainly wasn’t deterred by his presence. When she whirled around, her eyes were huge. He had forgotten what it was like to be a child with boundless energy. “Have you eaten recently?”

“We just came in to have sandwiches. Eldon, do you want to play with us?”

Chuckling, he shook his head. “Perhaps another time. Enjoy yourselves.” He adjusted the sack of food under his arm and continued onward. With a small amount of struggle, he shouldered through the front door. After he placed the food on the kitchen table, he lurched down the hallway and opened his study door. He leaned against his desk and removed his coat, then rolled up his shirt sleeves and unbuttoned the collar.

He picked up the invoices that had arrived in the mail yesterday. Before he had a chance to deliberate how he was going to cough up any money for the bank without making it impossible for him to pay back his loan, someone tapped on the door. “Come in,” he said without looking up.

A slim, tall figure entered the room. Lifting his gaze, he stared for a long moment at Kitty, who lingered in the doorway. “Do you need something, Ms. Ranlyn?” He asked, remembering the way that she had whimpered when he licked open her mouth.

Kitty came fully into the room and hovered on the other side of his desk. Suddenly, she thrust a paper package into his face. “I brought you biscuits.”

Pushing the package away from himself, he slid his lips over to the side of his face. “Why?”

She set the package in front of him and went over to the chair that he had put against his wall. Dragging it to the desk, she plunked herself down beside of him. With a huffing breath, he peeled open the package and said, “These are cookies.”

Kitty frowned. “They’re biscuits.”

“No, they’re cookies.” He insisted. Picking up one of the cookies, he shook off a thin layer of cinnamon and sugar. “Why are you giving me cookies?”

Kitty opened, then closed her mouth. Rethinking what she was going to tell him, she said, “I thought that you would be happy if I gave you biscuits. But you look just as grouchy as you did when I came in, and now you’re telling me that these are cookies. Why don’t you just forget about the name and eat one of them?”

“Because it’s bothering me that you think these are biscuits.”

“Have you forgotten that I’m English?”

“Of course not. The English have a certain… way about them. They’re disingenuous. They walk around with their noses in the air, flaunting their wealth with extravagant house parties and ridiculous clothing. The English have no hobbies. Rather, they consume themselves by strategically planning out marriages so that they can either gain a title or become rich. And then they surprise you with things like this, but they don’t tell you why they’re giving them to you. Have I a right to be paranoid?”

“I suppose, but you seem crazy. Perhaps you could accept the fact that I’m being nice.”

Eyeing Kitty, he picked up one of the cookies and nibbled on the edge of it. “It’s fine,” he said. “You shouldn’t put it into your mind that you have a chance of becoming a baker, but the cookie was all right.”

“You would give it much more praise if you knew that I wasn’t the one who made it.”

“There you are! You could have told me from the moment that you gave me these cookies that you didn’t make them! But, no, you waited to see how I would react. If I said that it was the best thing I ever tasted, you wouldn’t have told me that this wasn’t your own creation. Because I said that it was fine, you removed the criticism from yourself and put it onto someone else. You sneaky Englishwoman! Now I think that the cookie is even blander, and perhaps a little dry, because you didn’t make it. You fooled me into thinking that you put effort into making these for me, but you only burdened yourself with carrying them into my study.”

“And you’re jumping to conclusions! I did attempt to make these biscuits, but I’ve never baked anything in my entire life. I told you that. I burned the first two batches. You should be pleased to know that my sister helped me, or else I would have given you melted, crispy biscuits.”

“Cookies!” Eldon said, knowing that he looked absolutely mad. “These are cookies. And, frankly, I would have rather had the melted, burnt cookies than anything that your sister made. Would you be happy if I gave you a gift, and then told you that my brother actually made it because he’s a better craftsman than I am?”

All at once, Kitty ruptured into giggles that shook her entire frame. Even though he tried to repress it, a smile broke out on Eldon’s face as she laughed so hard that she began to hiccup. “You poor girl,” he murmured. “I won’t accept any other gifts from you unless they’re made by your hand. Now what will you do, return home to make me some other awful, burnt thing?”

Kitty lifted her bright, hazel eyes to his face, and he shuddered as she flashed her pearly teeth in a smile. As if she had experienced that same discomforting feeling in her stomach, she wet her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. Eldon’s eyes darted down to her plump mouth.

The third oldest Ranlyn sibling and the one who has dealt with the most rejection on the marriage market, Kitty Ranlyn is moved from one place to another in an attempt to find a husband. With no ideas left, her oldest brother and guardian sends her to America, hoping that the relaxed customs will allow her odd nature to shine. In a little village called Rechquaakie in New York, Kitty encounters Ellis Steele, a charismatic, handsome, and inventive man who led her to believe that he was going to pursue her. But all is not as it seems in this peculiar, closed-off place where nothing exciting ever happens.

Understanding that she is being rejected one more time, Kitty puts down her foot and declares herself an independent woman. Of course, she doesn’t need money. She’s the sister-in-law of the wealthy and generous aristocrat, the Marquess of Salford. Giving up on her pursuit of a husband, she decides to make a clothing shop with Ellis’s help—this time viewing him solely as a friend and business partner.

But Ellis Steele’s older brother, Eldon, understands that she is making a bad decision. He knows about his brother’s tainted reputation. Not wanting the innocent lady to get mixed up in that, Eldon decides to become her chaperone. There is no way that anyone can assume that he has become her suitor. He is nearly twenty years her senior, scarred down his left side, and widowed. In an attempt to protect Kitty’s status, he accidentally stirs up more trouble than he intended for either of them. This leads to a marriage proposal—from Eldon Steele himself. Kitty, who has been secretly falling in love with the mathematician, is delighted. But she doesn’t know all that the older Steele brother has been keeping from her—fantastical family members, violent murders, a fire in his home, a brother with a forbidden love life, and a twisted childhood riddled with mistakes that he himself made. Can her love make him forgive what he’s done and move on from the past?

Reader Alert! Kitty Ranlyn would love to get married. It’s been her dream since she was a little girl. But failure after failure has made her cynical. She decides to give up on finding a husband and concentrates on making a clothing shop. While pursuing her new dream in a small village where nothing exciting ever happens, she gets mixed up in the Steele family. One of the brothers has been destroyed by a house fire that killed his wife, and he wants nothing more than to be left alone. But these two passionate and obstinate people end up working together toward a common goal. When Kitty ends up engaged to Eldon, for whom she has been falling in love, she is surprised and delighted. She got what she always wanted—as well as the clothing shop. But she doesn’t know about the horrible things that he’s been hiding from her, including the monster that has been living on his property.

To My Readers: His English Lady has been a pain in my neck, and I’m glad to see it out in the world at last. I started writing it before I went on a two-week trip to England, and anyone who knows me is aware that I hate taking extended breaks when I’m writing. On top of that, I also have very little in common with Eldon Steele and Kitty Ranlyn. I love them, but it’s a workout to write them. For this book, I had to combine minute elements of mystery and horror, then wrap those into a historical romance, the prequels of which have been known for their comedy. I was struggling. But despite how hard it was to write this book, I enjoyed every minute of it and I will continue revealing bits and pieces about Eldon and Kitty in the future books. The preachy, grumpy, reclusive mathematician and the bubbly, vivacious, fashion-loving lady of the gentry… who knew that I could do it?

About the Author:Abbey Faith is a twenty-two year old graduate student, aspiring to be a middle school teacher. She is based in Columbus, Ohio with her family and many pets.